Odisha train accident live updates

Odisha train accident live updates | Rescue operation ends with death toll at 288; restoration work continues

Preliminary probe says signal was given and taken off for Coromandel Express; PM Modi visits derailment site

At least 288 people were feared dead and several injured in a major rail accident involving two express trains — Yashwantpur-Howrah Express and Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express — and a goods train in Balasore district of Odisha on June 2.

Huge cranes and bulldozers were brought in to raise coaches rescuers had not been able to reach as yet in operations to pull out survivors and the dead from the mangled steel of three trains.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the site of the derailment this afternoon, reviewing relief works that are underway. He interacted with local authorities, personnel from the disaster relief forces and railways officials.

A preliminary investigation by a team of railway officials has revealed that signal was given and then taken off for Coromandel Express which entered the Loop Line and collided with the goods train.

The train crash, the fourth deadliest in India according to available records, happened near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar, around 7 p.m. on Friday.

Several coaches of the 12864 Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, on the way to Howrah, derailed and fell on adjacent tracks, an official said. “These derailed coaches collided with the 12841 Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express and its coaches capsized too,” he said.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik declared one-day State mourning in the wake of the deadly triple train crash.